Happy Birthday
by Ace's Shadow Girl
Summary: It's Nami's birthday, but where is Luffy? One-shot. Beware of fluffiness...


**Author's note:** This is for you, dear Yasaonna-Chan. I think the title says it all …

And Luffy _might_ seem OOC … but never mind.

**Disclaimer:** I still don't own One Piece, because I'm not Oda.

**

* * *

Happy Birthday**

It was a day like every other. Like many others. The sun was shining brightly, covering the deck of the Sunny Go in its warm light and raising the temperature to a comfortable point. They were moored next to a summer island, and Nami seriously contemplated wearing nothing but her bikini today – a thing to which Sanji would surely gladly agree. She smiled when she chose hot pants and a tank top instead.

Tying up her hair into a ponytail, she finally stepped out of her room, yawning. It was still early, and perhaps she could work on a few new maps until the other crew members awoke, like she always did.

But not today.

She entered the kitchen to grab some juice – and, seeing the galley, stopped short.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" a shout resonated through the air.

Yes, it was a day like every other – save the fact that it was her birthday.

Her eyes widened as they wandered over those eight people she loved. No, wait – they were seven …

"Nami-swan!" Sanji exclaimed as he grabbed her hand. He had improved – he could now even touch her without necessarily bleeding to death. "I made a birthday cake for you …"

Yes, a cake it was, indeed. Three storeys high, pink, with marzipan coating and exactly twenty-one candles on it.

How could she have forgotten her own birthday? Sure, there were these damn two years and the long-desired reunion, and everything she could think of since then was how happy she was to be with them again. How untypical for her.

But the crew had remembered, yes, and she was even more grateful for that.

"Sit down, Nami-swan. Sit down and enjoy. I hope the cake is to your liking …"

She thanked Sanji and did as he wanted, flashing a smile of true happiness at all of them. But somehow, she just couldn't get rid of the strange feeling that something was missing … Something substantial.

"Thank you, all of you. Thank you so much …" she said, and Brook started to play a tune he had written especially for her. The others smiled at her (even Zoro made an effort, since it was the first birthday party to celebrate since the separation), and Sanji started to serve the food.

Then it dawned on her – no cries for meat, no yelps as the cook did everything he could to protect his creations from bad grabbing rubber hands – it was way too silent. And apart from that, the cake was still intact.

"Where's Luffy?" she asked in confusion. "Did you kick him out because he annoyed you too much?" _Or is he still sleeping? Wouldn't surprise me that much …_

She felt a pang of sadness at that thought. Everybody was there, had remembered her birthday, only the person she wanted the most was not …

Yes, these two years had made her realise many things, and one of them was that she liked her captain more than was probably healthy for her. You only notice such things once you don't have them anymore – same old story.

"He's got up early today," Usopp's voice pulled her out of her train of thoughts about her stupid, idiotic yet lovable rubber captain. "He said he'd have to do something important and hasn't returned yet."

"Huh?" she asked, even more confused now. Not only that Luffy was missing breakfast, one of his most important meals (well, they all were) – he also did it deliberately! He never missed breakfast, so why did he have to do it now?

Sighing inaudibly, she tried to focus on the rest of her crewmates – those who were there and hadn't forgotten her birthday (like herself) –, but the sadness stayed, deep inside of her, where nobody could see it.

* * *

Half the day had passed, and there was still no sign of Luffy. Nami started to get nervous, and even the others began to think that something could have happened to their carefree happy-go-lucky captain.

Nami tried to read, but she couldn't concentrate, so she got up with the intention of inaugurating the new pen set and tools especially for map drawing the crew had given her as a present. The little lamp from Usopp and Franky had to wait; it was bright enough today.

Much to her surprise, she found that she couldn't concentrate on that either, and after the umpteenth wrong line, she jumped up angrily, knocking her chair to the floor in the process. "That damn idiot," she muttered and stormed to the door.

Before she could open it, however, it was pushed open by Chopper, and she almost managed to get hit in the face by it. The little reindeer ahrieked when he saw her standing in front of him, fuming with barely suppressed anger as she was, and hurried to hand her a little scrap of paper.

"Here Nami, I found this on Luffy's hammock …"

Nami frowned and took the piece of paper. It was covered with odd handwriting she didn't see very often but managed to recognise as Luffy's immediately.

"Nami, find me!" it said, and she couldn't prevent her heart from beating faster. What could that mean – apart from the obvious? Had he planned something?

"Are you going?" Chopper wanted to know, and she lowered the hand that still held the message.

"Of course!" she exclaimed and could have slapped her hand on her mouth for so much stupidity. Perhaps she shouldn't act all too excited; that would definitely raise suspicions. Which she really couldn't need now.

Chopper, however, took her happiness as a sign of relief, and as he was a playful little fellow, he understood she looked forward to a game of hide-and-seek with Luffy. He knew Luffy wasn't that good at it, so he didn't offer her his help but told her to hide next so he could look for her.

She only nodded, absorbed in thought. What could it be that Luffy wanted from her? And, even more important, why did he miss breakfast for it? Even if he had plundered the fridge in the night, he was always hungry. That would be no excuse for missing breakfast.

"I'll go check that out," she said to Chopper and went out. Stepping to the railing, she looked at the little island in front of her with a frown. It was uninhabited, so there was no town where he could have gone to. Just the shore and a forest covering most parts of it. No hill where she could go to get an overview. No nothing, just nature everywhere – and what did Luffy want with nature? It wasn't like he was a tree-hugger or something … but on the other hand, this was Luffy. He could always surprise you with something completely new when you expected it least of all.

Without saying a word, Nami climbed down the rope ladder and, entering the ship's hull, sighed. Luffy had taken the Mini Merry – of course he had, since he couldn't swim. So she decided to take the waver and activated channel one of the Soldier Dock System. It was easier like this anyway, because she didn't have to put up much of an effort to get to the island. The waver drove by itself, and it was faster than the other boat.

"Hey Nami-neechan! Where are you going?" Franky called after her, but she faintly heard how Chopper explained to him that she was going to play a game with Luffy. She even heard his perverted laugh, but didn't bother commenting it.

Soon she was at the island's shore and stepped on sandy ground. Then she scratched her head: now where to begin? The boat wasn't anywhere here … she would have to find it first, and then she would find Luffy. Perhaps there were footsteps leading away from it, so she would get a vague idea of which direction he had taken. Nodding to herself, she turned on her heels and took up the waver once again. She would just drive along the shore, the island wasn't that big. The boat had to be somewhere.

She got more impatient with every minute that passed without finding the boat, and ste started to worry – what if he had taken it with him? She would have to look at the shore for footsteps, too, but that was harder than just looking for a boat …

She soon discovered that it had been useless to worry. She found the Mini Merry behind the next curve, placed so that it couldn't be seen from at the Sunny, and sighed in relief. She drove the waver in the boat's direction, and when she got nearer, she found that she wouldn't have to search for Luffy either – he was there, next to a rock formation that blocked him off from view, if you were on the other side.

"Lu–," she started, but the shout got stuck in her throat when she saw all the things around him. He wasn't even looking at her; he was busy with hurrying around and doing things she couldn't see.

"Huh?" she muttered as she dropped the waver beside the Mini Merry and went closer. He still didn't notice her, he – _are these candles?_

Luffy was in a whole sea of candles, candles of all colours, and all of them were burning. However, the wind did its best to blow them out, and what Luffy was doing was merely lighting them anew.

Nami stopped and gaped at the scenery. He ran around in a manner that could only be described as 'frantic', worry on his face and muttering incomprehensible things as he unceasingly continued to light candles. It seemed rather futile, because when he had some of them burning, some others got blown out. If Nami hadn't been so surprised and confused, she could have laughed.

Slowly stepping closer, she cleared her throat for him to hear, and he whirled around. The candles were all lit – for the moment, and the blowing of the wind had reduced to a soft caress on her skin rather than threatening to rip her hair out.

"Nami!" he yelped, and she couldn't decide whether to find his attitude delighted or nervous.

"Luffy?" she asked and further decreased the distance between them. "What are you doing here?"

"So you found my message?" he asked, evading her question. Taking one hand up, he scratched the back of his neck. His grin seemed unusually weak. Yes, he was nervous – a state he was in almost never. She had never seen him like this, not even when Sanji had found out about his nightly tours to the fridge.

"Chopper found it. Did you really expect me to look in your bed?" she asked dryly, then made an all-encompassing gesture. "What's this? What are you doing here, and why the heck did you miss breakfast?"

"Breakfast …" he mumbled, and she heard his stomach growl loudly. "Oh yeah, I guess I really did miss it."

"You didn't even notice?" Now that surprised her even more than the fact that he had missed it. He hadn't even noticed missing it! How un-Luffy-like …

"No, I was busy," he explained and lowered his gaze to the ground as if he – _he really is nervous! _"Waiting for you."

"Waiting for me? All the time?" she asked in surprise.

"Yup," he smiled nervously.

"Luffy, what's all this about?" she asked rather impatiently, annoyed that she had to tickle it out of him. "These are so many candles, what do you want to do with them? And why did I have to come here?"

"Uhh, yeah …" he uttered, and she saw him taking a deep breath. "Many candles. Seven hundred and thirty …"

"Seven hundred and thirty?" she blurted out, raising her eyebrows to her hairline. "What the heck do you want with seven hundred and thirty candles?"

Now it was as if every trace of nervosity had abandoned him, and he looked her straight in the eyes, without fiddling around with his fingers or stepping from one foot to the other. "They mean seven hundred and thirty days."

"Seven hundred and thirty days?" she repeated and felt incredibly dumbfounded. Another crazy plan of his? _What the heck does that mean?_

He nodded and looked at her as if she was supposed to know it. But she didn't, and that made her mad. "Luffy! Express yourself clearer!" she snapped.

He smiled, and she felt her heart beating faster – which annoyed her even more. She couldn't allow her feelings for him to get in the way of – yeah, what? A professional talk? This was far off professional, and he wasn't professional either.

"You're the smart one here, Nami," he told her, and she blushed fiercely.

_Is he … making fun of me?_

"Luffy," she said threateningly and went closer to him.

He took up his hands in a gesture of appeasement. "Okay, okay, I'll tell you. Seven hundred and thirty days make two years."

"Two years?" She was now only a few steps ahead of him, looking at the candle sea around her. "And?"

"Two years of loneliness," he said calmly, his gaze never leaving her face, and she began to understand – a bit. "Two years of being away from you …"

_From you, as in 'from you, my crew' …_ she thought but couldn't prevent the blush that crept back over her cheeks at the idea that he could have meant her with 'you'. _Silly girl_, she sighed inwardly. _He'd never say something like that … He's Luffy, after all._

For he looked somewhat expectant, she shrugged hesitantly. "And … what now?"

His smile grew wider. "Blow them out."

"What?"

"Blow them out," he repeated patiently, as if he talked to a stupid child. The irony of that was that actually _he_ was the one acting like a stupid child all the time.

Nami frowned, but as he continued to stare at her, she sighed and went down on her knees, starting to extinguish the little flames.

It took her almost ten minutes until she was finished, and all the time he just stood there, amidst it all, and watched her. Really, were it not for the fact that _this was Luffy_, the stupid, idiotic and childish rubber boy, she would have thought he just liked to watch her crouching around on her knees, having perverted thoughts.

When the last one was blown out, she rose again, brushing the sand off her legs before she looked at him again. "So?" she asked when he didn't seem to say something soon but just looked at her in a way that made her face crimson and her heart beat faster.

"This was a symba – symb –"

"Symbolic?" she suggested when he struggled with the word.

"Thank you," he grinned. "A symbolic act. You took them away, these days. Now you're here, you're with me again …" he said, stepping closer until he stood right in front of her. His grin vanished slowly and made his face serious. Somehow, that frightened her.

_You – as in 'you, my crew' …?_

She could only gape at him as he took up a hand to her cheek. Everything she could have said in that moment got stuck in her throat. There was nothing to say, and he seemed to know that, too – for he didn't say anything either. He just looked at her, in her eyes, and she believed she saw something in his dark ones. At least, she wanted to believe it …

His hand left a trail of fire on her skin as it travelled down to finally rest at the back of her neck. She thought her heart would stop every moment when he pulled her closer to him, closer, closer …

Everything seemed in slow motion. His eyes, pitch-black and oh so beautiful, his face coming closer, his other hand resting on her upper arm, burning. She burned, her body was in flames. She couldn't believe it. This was unreal, this just couldn't happen …

And the world stopped when his lips met hers in a soft kiss. The world, and her heart. There was nothing but this extraordinary feeling of his lips – she had imagined a moment like this, she had dreamt of this. But never, never had she thought it could become reality. And this was even better.

When he pulled back slowly, her hand shot up to his shoulder to keep him there in an act of sudden fear. Fear that this wasn't real, that he would fade away until there was nothing but memories left.

He smiled and caressed her long hair behind her back. "This was just something I wanted to tell you," he whispered and swallowed hard. "I never realised … but two years is a long time to think, and that's all I –"

He was cut short when she didn't let him talk any further but stopped him in the most beautiful way: she pressed her lips on his. The chuckle that escaped his throat only encouraged her, and her hands grabbed his shoulders, pulling him closer.

When he broke the kiss, she could have cried. It seemed too short. She wanted more of this. More of him. But she forced herself to hold back, and slowly, more and more, the ability to think returned to her head. "You were here the whole day?" she wanted to know, and her voice sounded husky.

He only nodded while keeping this incredibly beautiful smile on his lips – _the lips she had kissed_, she realised, and her heart beat so fast now that she feared it could escape her chest and fly away.

"That's the cutest thing you ever did," she whispered.

"Sanji gave me the idea …" he admitted, still smiling, and she laughed.

"Sanji?"

"He told me you like candles," he said and lowered his head so that his forehead touched hers.

"I do," she mumbled, and her hands clutched his vest. She was afraid to let go – he could still disappear after all.

"Then you liked it?" he asked, obviously pleased.

She chuckled. "It was confusing in the beginning. But now … yes, I liked it. It was the best present of all …"

He smiled as he continued to caress her hair. They stood like this for many minutes, in comfortable silence and happy as could be, until –

His stomach growled loudly, and he shot back. "Ah, sorry …"

Nami laughed. This was the best day of her whole life, and she was the happiest girl on earth. "Let's get back. You have to eat."

They walked back to the boats, hand in hand.

"Happy birthday, Nami."


End file.
